day one: wellington to martinborough with a side trip to cape palliser
Key
- Destinations
- Apex Locations
We leave Wellington in the early morning and reach Featherston, the gateway to the
Wairarapa, by 9.30 am. Breakfast – stacks of Vogel’s toast washed down with copious
cups of tea – is enjoyed in a good old fashioned kiwi tearoom on the main street.
“Have you seen the Fell engine?” enquires our waitress when she delivers a fresh
pot of steaming tea to our table, “It’s the only one left in the world.”
We decide to stretch our legs around the museum after breakfast and discover that
it houses not only the fell engine, the sole survivor of the rolling stock of the
Rimutaka Incline, but also an incline brake van and many other items of railroad
memorabilia. From Featherston we head south, skimming the shores of Lake Wairarapa
- the largest wetlands in the lower North Island and home to both native and migratory
birds - before crossing the Ruamahanga River to Lake Ferry.
This small settlement has views overlooking the pounding waves of Palliser Bay and
across the tranquil waters of Lake Onoke. The lake is fed with fresh water from
the Ruamahanga River and is sheltered from the ocean by a narrow sandy spit. Bob
and I kick off our shoes and walk the length of the spit - the contrast between
the two is quite astounding.
Before we leave town Bob, ever mindful of his stomach, makes a note that the hotel
serves steamed green-lipped mussels, “Let’s come back for lunch,” he says. We drive
slightly inland before meeting the coast again at the Putangirua Pinnacles, where
we hike upstream to these huge, organ pipe-like columns which were formed over the
past 120,000 years by heavy rain washing away silt and sand to expose the underlying
bedrock. Bob takes several photos and on the return we notice that there’s also
a small amount of erosion on the rocks above the car park – they provide an ideal
glimpse for visitors who are unable to hike in to see the pinnacles.
In Ngawi, a picturesque fishing village located at the base of the towering Aorangi
Range, we’re greeted by rows of rusty, brightly-painted bulldozers parked on the
beach. We watch the fishermen as they haul sturdy fishing boats ashore using the
bulldozers and then stack crayfish pots in neat piles around the village...
please click the link to download the full
Wairarapa scenic drive, courtesy of apex car rentals new zealand...
the kiwi way
to read more extracts from our driving holiday's guidebook please click on any of
the following links:
north island scenic drives
south island scenic drives